Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson: Does Trump Know What He Is Doing?

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Larry Johnson: Does Trump Know What He Is Doing?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, February 3rd, 2025. Larry Johnson will be here with us in just a moment. But first, this. Markets are at an all-time high. Euphoria has set in. The economy seems unstoppable. But the last administration has buried us so deep in debt and deficits, it's going to take a lot of digging to get us out of this hole. Are you prepared? Lear Capital specializes in helping people like me and you grow and protect our wealth with gold. Did you know that during Trump's last presidency, gold rose 54% to a record high? If that happens again, that puts gold at $4,200 an ounce in his next term. Don't wait.

Do what I did. Call Lear at 800-511-4620 or go to learjudgenap.com for your free gold ownership kit and special report, $4,200 gold ahead. When you call, ask how you can also get up to $15,000 in bonus gold with a qualifying purchase. Call 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com and tell them the judge sent you. Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend. Hi there. Do you think that the Trump administration understands economics 101 that a tariff is a tax on the consumer well yes and no um it's a tax of the consumer but it also puts money in the treasury so the the uh in the short term uh it's going to actually reduce uh I'll be a you know a small amount, U.S. debt. So that'll look good on the U.S. balance sheet.

But as you correctly note, it's also a tax. And I use the example of tequila coming out of Mexico. So if you're going to buy a bottle of, let's say, Tres Amigos, which say right now goes for $40 a bottle of total wine, a 25% tariff means you're going to pay $50 for that. Now, that additional $10, that goes into the pocket of Uncle Sam. So it gets back to how much do you need that bottle of tequila? You know, is that, are you willing to pay the extra 10 bucks or not?

And it's, you know, once that 10 bucks is built in, then, you know, the cost is built in all along. Extrapolate that out to Walmart where half the products they sell are made in China. That's going to put people out of work as well as increase the price of those products. Potentially again. And with the tariffs on China are only at 10%.

But I think all of this is part of a negotiating ploy by Trump. And we saw this morning, it's already worked with Scheinbaum, the president of Mexico, who, you know, she got on the phone with Trump and pleaded, you know, begged and, hey, you know, put it off for one month. So Trump's agreed for one month and the Mexicans are going to immediately deploy more troops to the border. And they pledged to stop the allowing fentanyl to get into this country. You know, part of this whole issue of, you know, fentanyl is a synthetic narcotic. And there is a very close relationship between Chinese criminal organizations and Mexican criminal organizations in the movement of those synthetic narcotics.

These synthetic narcotics are going to come in as long as there's a market for them. Absolutely. And it's going to continue killing Americans at a horrific rate. Correct. Correct. So this is the best way, I think, to look at these tariffs. Short-term and economic benefit for Uncle Sam, middle to long-term likely a detriment to the consumer.

I guess guacamole during the super bowl was saved well as long as those uh avocados the agro got this as long as they come out of california you're you're good to go yeah you know when trump makes these uh threats like um oh, Vladimir Putin is not doing a good job and the Russians lost a million troops in Ukraine and the Chinese are controlling the Panama Canal. How does the Kremlin view that stuff? Do they view it as he doesn't know what he's talking about, or do they view it as he's got a very narrow audience he's trying to appeal to, and we are not in that audience? No, I think they view it as he's not reliable at this point,

that he's going to say a variety variety of things that may or may not he may not really believe so they're looking more the the i think the the kremlin view is much more concrete what is the united states going to actually do are they going to continue to flow money into ukraine and encourage attacks on Russian targets? You know, what we're seeing right now, what's happened over the last three or four days with respect to curtailing the Agency for International Development funds has been a real eye-opener because, one, it's exposed press in ukraine as being entirely funded by the united states right you know it was previously perceived as all some what remained of independent press

but in fact it was all on the payroll of aid which has frankly been working in tandem with cia it's been it's actually actually been an open arm, an open source information arm of the Central Intelligence Agency's covert action program. It has played an instrumental role in trying to spark color revolutions in Georgia, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia.

I mean, it is just, it's been relentless. Man, it's been relentless, man. It's, it's, it's, it's been shut down. How does the CIA react when they get exposed like this? Well, this is a, it's like the cockroaches in your kitchen at night when you flip on the light, they go scurrying for cover. You know, they've been the major source of the funds that have enabled this flow of illegal migrants that were showing

up in Panama and then working their way up the isthmus up through Central America through Honduras, Guatemala, then into southern Mexico crossing at Esquipulas and going all the way up through a variety of towns like Brownsville, Matamoros. So, shutting this down, I didn't realize how big the budget for AID had become. And you remember, during the 1960s, AID was seen as a counterweight to Soviet models of development. It was supposed to promote community development. There was an economics professor way back then called Walt Rostow, who was also an advisor to John F. Kennedy.

And Rostow had published a book called The Five Stages of Economic Growth. And it was a vision of how capitalism was going to out-compete the Soviets. And AID was an essential part of that. And I do recall, you know, my master's degree was in a field called community development. And one of my instructors at the time was, I came later to understand, had been a central intelligence agency officer. But he was undercover in the Agency for International Development. No surprise. Are you surprised that Trump has kept the Biden pipeline of military supplies to Kiev open?

Well, I'm not sure. They have not made any overt move to shut it down. No, if it had been shut down, Zelensky would be screaming like a stuck pig. Well, he is screaming like a stuck pig. If you've listened to him over the last couple of days, you go, oh, my God, 177 billion. We only got 77 billion. Where's that 100 billion? You know, he's already calling about that. But he's not screaming about the absence of artillery shells and equipment.

Well, because they've got a personnel problem right now. They have gutted, you know, so the United States trained a bunch of operators, Ukrainian military personnel, to operate Patriot missile batteries. The desperation on the part of the general staff in Ukraine for soldiers on the front lines is such that they've stripped those Patriot batteries of their trained personnel and thrown them into the front lines so even if we send more Patriot missiles so they're not going to be able to shoot them. They don't have anybody to operate the systems. My point is Trump could stop the war in Ukraine with a phone call.

I realize he's only been in office for a few weeks, but it's still going on. Yeah, we're right at two weeks. It's 14 days since he took the oath of office. It's only been 14 days. He's done so much. It seems like it's been a month. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Think about that. He is, I think he's taking a backdoor strategy that, you know,

this cutting off the AID, cutting off that source of fund as a way to start draining Ukraine and then sending the other signals that he has been. Oh, yeah, Ukraine, they've got to have elections. And Marco Rubio and his various discussions with Europeans, they're not talking Ukraine at all. Or if they are, it's only peripherally. So the message is getting sent loud and clear to Zelensky that the flow of military aid you know whether it's artillery

shells that's even limited because the United States does not have ample stores to send so this is this war this war is in its final stages that's what it's where you were you mentioned room Rubio what's the message to rubio that the first foreign head of state to visit uh trump is uh prime minister netanyahu tomorrow and rubio's in panama trying to shake down the government over the canal rather than participating in the negotiations with uh netanyahu oh no he'll be back up tonight for the Netanyahu visit. He finished up, you know, they've got a tentative deal with the president of Panama with where they say, okay, yeah, we'll terminate this contract that we've had with the Chinese for 30

years next year. We won't renew it. Well, okay, so they don't renew that contract uh it remains to be seen who then comes in to manage those container ports and if the chinese say okay you're telling us to go home we're going to take our equipment including the cranes we're going to pull that out how can you operate the canal without all that equipment? Exactly. So the United States doesn't have a group of technicians and qualified personnel that can step in and run that port, run those ports. So on the one hand, this may be like a Pyrrhic victory for Rubio. He was able to go down.

He didn't have to have a translator along with him. He could talk to him in Spanish. But the Panamanian, I've been in touch. A friend of mine used to be the president of the Cologne Free Trade Zone. And they're both angered and really worried and concerned about relations with the United States. Now, coming back to Netanyahu, this doesn't mean, despite the social memes that have showed up, which they show a plane landing and they say, oh, here's the president of the United States. Door opens and out walks Netanyahu. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, that's a joke, but it's not. But the reality is Trump's not going to be sitting there going, hey, Bibi, what can I do for you, baby? You know, Trump's got his own agenda. And he's not a fanboy of Bibi Netanyahu. And Bibi Netanyahu has some physical ailments, both a heart condition and probable prostate cancer.

So, you know, he's not in the best of health right now. And Israel has not won a stunning victory over Hamas, just the opposite. They failed after 15 months to defeat and destroy Hamas. What did they gain by their genocide in Gaza? Well, they killed well over 50,000-60,000 Palestinians. People say the number could be much higher, and it may be because they haven't dug out bodies from under the rubble. It's left Israel more isolated diplomatically. It's reduced Israel's military readiness because it has stressed its reserve force to the breaking point. So in terms of a tangible military objective,

it didn't achieve any of what they established at the outset. It may actually jeopardize Netanyahu's tenure in office. I mean, Trump doesn't want more war in Gaza, and the right wing in his office wants the war to resume tomorrow. Yeah, but as you've noted before with some of your other guests that, you know, Trump talking about sending Palestinians to Egypt or to Jordan or to Indonesia or God knows where they're not going to go they're not going to be willing exiles and and the countries of Jordan and Egypt are not going to put up with that for a minute either so you know Trump Trump thinking out loud is not going to necessarily make that happen turn it into action uh I'm going to

play uh the clip of Senator Michael Bennett making a fool of himself and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard you wrote a great piece last night uh on this about whether or not Snowden is a traitor and you demonstrated beyond dispute how she should have answered that question. Let's watch the clip as irritating as it is and then we'll talk about Snowden and Tulsi Gabbard. Chris, number nine. Do you believe, as the chairman of this committee believes, as the vast majority of members of our intelligence agencies believe, that Edward Snowden was a traitor to the United States of America? Senator, I've confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will work with you to make sure that there is not another Snowden-like leak.

This is not a moment for social media. It's not a moment to propagate theories, conspiracy theories, or attacks on journalism in the United States. This is when you need to answer the questions of the people whose votes you're asking for to be confirmed as the chief intelligence officer of this nation. As my colleague said, this is not about you. It's about the people that serve the intelligence agencies of the United States. Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America? That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are

this high. Senator, as someone who has served in uniform. Your answer, yes or no, is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America? As someone who has worn our uniform in combat, I understand how critical our national security is. Apparently you don't. Apparently you don't. Let me. What a fool. Has nobody been charged with treason? No.

And that's what she should have started and said, well, Senator, I'm not here to explain to you what I believe. My job as the Director of National Intelligence is to present policymakers and the President in particular with the best intelligence and the facts as we know them. It's not my job nor my role to tell you what I believe. I'm not here to advocate. I'm not here to make policy. I'm here to present intelligence and here are the facts the facts are that the United States government has only charged Edward Snowden with a violation of the Espionage Act for mishandling classified information it has not charged Edward Snowden with treason which it very well could have if it wanted to, but it did not.

So by virtue of the fact that Edward Snowden has not been charged with treason, he is not a traitor. A traitor by definition is somebody who has committed treason. And committing treason means you're basically providing material support to an enemy during a time of war. What Edward Snowden did, yes, he violated his non-disclosure agreement, which he signed, promising not to divulge classified information. But it presented him with a conundrum, because he also took a pledge to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And in his duties as someone with access to intelligence information, he saw firsthand

that the Constitution of the United States was being gutted and violated by officials in the Department of Defense and in the intelligence community. And the conundrum was this. Should he blow the whistle, except he had seen what happened to previous whistleblowers, Bill Benny, Ed Loomis, Kirk Veeby, and most importantly, Thomas Drake, all had worked at the National Security Agency. Thomas Drake ended up being charged under the Espionage Act. It was

false charges. He did not commit espionage, but the government was relentless. They went in and after Bill Benny, he was standing naked in the shower when they took him out at gunpoint. At 5.30 in the morning, correct. 5.30. So

Ed Snowden had watched that and he realized if you try to be a whistleblower on things like this, it doesn't come out well. So yeah, he took information, and he released it to the press. But he wasn't releasing it in order to destroy the United States. He was releasing it, I believe, as a way to set off alarm bells about the lies that were being told to the American people. So no, Senator Bennett, not only is Edward Snowden not a traitor, he served his country according to the oath he took under the Constitution. I would to God that you held the Constitution as dear as Ed Snowden did. Well, it's a great, great answer. I mean, he basically took an oath to obey the law. He also

took an oath to comply with the Constitution. When those two oaths clash, you obey the higher of the two, which is, of course, the Constitution. He's a patriot and an American hero. Trump at one point told me he was going to pardon him. And then Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo, those two patriots, I say that sarcastically, talked him out of it. This is at the tail end of his first term. Maybe he'll do it this time around. I hope she gets confirmed because she has, she's far from perfect but she has the healthiest attitude of anybody that would have had that job about the role of uh surveillance uh in uh in our lives uh well that's why they judge that's why they hate her right because because she's been a skeptic correctly so of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that we shouldn't have gone to war there.

You know, the false story told about Benghazi and about the use of chemical weapons, allegedly, by the Syrian government. When, in fact, that was a CIA operation with the MI6 and using this group called the White Helmets. It was a staged attack in much the same way that the Gulf of Konkan was a staged attack in order to precipitate military action by the United States. But, again, Tulsi, this Bennett's a fool because the last thing you want as a director of national intelligence is somebody with a political agenda. Who's going to be making...

Unless, of course, it's your political agenda, Senator Bennett. No, Larry, the piece you wrote was terrific. And I'm remiss, you you know given my legal background that i didn't think of this when you and ray and i were talking about it on uh on friday i mean calling him a traitor is absurd even if he's guilty of everything the government says he's guilty of it's not trees the government has only prosecuted seven people for treason in 250 years. The last was Ida Daquino, better known to the world as Tokyo Rose, and she was pardoned by President Ford. Anyway, fascinating stuff.

Thank you, Larry. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your courage. It's also a great conversation. We'll see you Friday afternoon with that youngster McGovern. I'll be there. We'll see you then, Judge. Thanksster McGovern. I'll be there. We'll see you then, Judge. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you, Larry. All the best to you, my friend. Coming up tomorrow, we have a busy day for you, a full day for you. At 8.30 in the morning from Brussels, Professor Glenn Deason at noon. Max Blumenthal at 1.15. Colonel Douglas McGregor at 2 o'clock. Matt Ho at 3 o'clock. Karen Kwiatkowski at four o'clock,

Professor John Mearsheimer. Wow. Looking forward to it. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. We'll see you next time. Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that specializes in personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu.